Köln to Dusseldorf

So, I’m on the bus again; this time heading off to Düsseldorf from the fantastic hotel in Köln for concert number 3. Concert 2 was a cracker, and the reception we got from the 3,000 strong audience in the Kölner Philharmonie was very pleasing; its always nice when an audience bothers to stand and clap louder when the choir are brought to their feet for their applause :)

It was also fairly eventful as performances of requiems go in that a lady had a heart attack in the middle of the piece - unfortunately right in my eye line. Being the good girl that I am, I always have Neville firmly locked in my sight, trouble was that in the same field of view I could see the poor old woman being manhandled (dragged, dropped, dragged) into the aisle and then up the stairs and out of the auditorium, all while I was trying to concentrate on the Lachrymosa. Five minutes later she was wheeled back through the auditorium on a trolley ... I was sure she must have passed away, but happily we learned following the concert that she was in hospital, but doing well. It was all a bit distracting really, but I guess if she hadn’t have pulled through, ‘going’ during the Mozart Requiem would have been as good a way to go as any ...

Today was spent in a leisurely walk in the direction of the Cathedral. Well, that was where we were heading, but the fact that we had all ‘done’ the cathedral twice before on previous trips, combined with the ‘minefield’ of designer boutiques we had to walk through in order to get there conspired to mean that we never made it and came back to the hotel considerably more financially challenged than we had been 3 hours before. Sigh ... Justifications for the Issey Miyake skirt as follows: 1. cheaper than home because of the Euro exchange rate; 2. I’m not in London therefore I’m not spending money living; and 3. I’m getting money to be here which more than amply covers the cost of my food and a few sherries of an evening ...

Whatever ... Its gorgeous!